


A Higher Power

by devilinthedetails



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Chivalry, F/F, F/M, Gen, Justice, Ordeal of Knighthood, References to violence against women, Satisfaction, Trauma from Sexual Assault, references to rape, vindication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 18:45:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15201080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilinthedetails/pseuds/devilinthedetails
Summary: After Vinson of Genlith's Ordeal, Lalasa experiences a sense of schadenfreude.





	A Higher Power

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for references to rape and violence against women though nothing graphic is written. Please exercise caution when choosing to read to avoid any potential triggers for yourself.

A Higher Power

“You don’t have to do this, you know.” Tian, who always encouraged and never forced Lalasa into anything, whispered warm and soft as a kiss against Lalasa’s ear. They stood waiting in the solemn, sacred hush of the chapel devoted to Mithros and the Chamber of the Ordeal as wintry white dawn broke, spearing through the stained glass depictions of the sun god waging war on the longest night of the year to restore light to the world and gleaming off the golden disk above the altar like a knight’s armor shining on a sunny tournament field. Their backs were pressed against the cold stone wall because the pews were reserved for the nobility–mostly relatives and friends of the monster undergoing his Ordeal. The pews looked almost as hard as the wall that supported Lalasa’s wobbly knees, and her fingers itched to embroider cushions for them as much to create beauty as for the comfort that occupying her fretting hands would provide. Tian’s fingers closed around Lalasa’s agitating fingers and she murmured, “If it’s easier for you, you can wait outside, and if anything happens, I’ll slip outside to tell you about it the minute it occurs.” 

“No, thank you.” Lalasa shook her head and tilted her cheek against Tian’s for its reassuring heat in the chilled chapel. “Whatever happens, I want to see it with my own eyes.” 

She still wasn’t certain what she expected–the Chamber hadn’t spat out Vinson of Genlith as swiftly as a man would a bite of rancid meat as Lalasa had half hoped–but she believed in her bones that something foul must befall the beast who had tried to force himself upon her despite Lalasa’s protests and pleas. The Chamber was supposed to be a higher power that judged the potential knights that strode through its doors, and Lalasa, even if it was blasphemy against the reputedly jealous Mithros, had prayed to it every night for a month, fervently appealing to it for the justice she knew that she would never get from any court in the country. On her knees each night before bed in her tidy lodgings above the shop that was her pride and joy, it wasn’t only herself she had prayed for, but also for the girls she had heard in the kitchens and the laundries when she was in Lady Kel’s service (she had never wasted time gossiping when she was in Lady Kel’s employ, but she had kept her ears open and her mouth shut) sharing horror stories of how he bruised them, how he bullied them, and how he made them bleed. The Chamber, she thought, had to listen to her prayer and not release Vinson of Genlith for knighthood when he made a mockery of the chivalry and justice Lalasa hadn’t imagined were real beyond her imagination until she met Lady Kel. 

The moment of truth had arrived, she realized with a shiver down her spine, as the Chamber’s doors swung open, seemingly of their own accord, reminding Lalasa of gaping jaws, forever hungry that could never be sated no matter how much mortal flesh and blood they consumed. An icy draft swept through the chapel, whipping Lalasa’s dress about her ankles for an instant that made her fear frostbite and threatening to extinguish the flickering candles on the altar. The frigid wind blew Vinson out of the Chamber, and he collapsed to the merciless floor before the man Lalasa assumed was his knightmaster could catch him with an outstretched arm. Lalasa hoped that he had broken a leg to match the cuts slicing through his face–deep enough, Lalasa sensed with a surge of pleasure in his pain, to scar him where the whole world could see as he had scarred so many servant girls in more private places over the years–and the violent purple bruises Lalasa could see swelling like finally released rage beneath the thin milk-pale robes he’d worn for his Ordeal. 

“I beg an audience with Their Majesties.” The beast who had tried to take her against her will didn’t sound demanding now. Instead he sounded as desperately hopeless in his pleading as any of his victims must, and Lalasa could have danced with glee that he was tasting his own poison if her body hadn’t gone suddenly numb from top to toe. It was such a relief to know that, regardless of what transpired in the audience with Their Majesties, the Chamber had exacted a terrible toll from Vinson of Genlith who would be forever disgraced in front of the nobility who were the only people that mattered to him, that Lalasa almost sagged against the wall behind her. The wild urge to dance had been overrun by the dizzying desire to faint. Justice left her as weak-kneed as it had the monster who had harmed her and so many other servant girls. 

“When a squire comes out of the Ordeal asking an audience with Their Majesties, the request is always granted.” Tian’s words were barely audible in the chapel echoing with gasps and shocked shouts even though her lips were moving across the shell of Lalasa’s ear. “What is said in that audience is almost never good.” 

Lalasa thought that was probably a matter of perspective. To her, it would be good to hear Vinson of Genlith finally admitting the truth of his crimes so he could be reviled as he deserved to be. A confession would be as cathartic for her as it was harrowing for Tian. 

Expressing that might make her seem spiteful to the woman whose opinion meant more than any other, however, so she answered only, “Let’s awaken Lady Kel. She’ll want to hear of this.” 

When she did, Lalasa doubted that she would feel the crushing euphoria Lalasa did, but she would, Lalasa was sure, feel a grim satisfaction that might only show in a vindicated flash of her eyes or a stubborn set to her jaw. Lalasa’s sense of righteousness being restored at last would only increase when she saw some of her own satisfaction mirrored in Lady Kel so she tugged Tian out of the chapel and up what felt like a hundred staircases and corridors to the quarters Lady Kel shared with her knightmaster, the Lord Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie’s Peak.


End file.
